


No Room On The Hill

by JackHoney



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Amnesiac Courier (Fallout), Brain Damage, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Nonverbal Communication, Nonverbal Courier, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Surreal, Tribal Courier (Fallout)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:00:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28824864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackHoney/pseuds/JackHoney
Summary: ‘Hello, my name is Junie, I’m not much of one for speaking.I’m looking for a man in a checkered suit, have you seen him?’Boone looked up from the note passed to him.“You don’t talk?”Junie frowned, flushed. She didn’t have time for this. She turned away from the sniper with a roll of her eyes, hoping he caught the sass as she gingergly stepped back down the steps.“No wait, don’t go just yet.” Boone was able to take the steps much faster and got beside the girl. “You’re new around here, just passing through? Maybe you can do me a favor.”-Fic featuring the start of game through completion of Boone’s personal quest.
Relationships: Craig Boone/Female Courier
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Got to replaying New Vegas and wanted to explore my courier and her interactions with Boone!

The town of Goodsprings really didn’t know what to make of the courier that had been pulled from the dirt and sand by Victor. Several days comatose, some people thought it had been cruel of the robot to not let nature take its course. What was the point of pulling someone out of their grave, when a clean death like a shot to head was something like good luck in the Mojave. When the rescued girl surprised everyone with waking up, the sentiment strengthened. 

“That bullet to her head must have let out every last marble that had been in it.” Chet said over his beer, sitting at the Prospector’s bar. “Doc did what he could, but that girl is scrambled.” 

Sunny Smiles glowered at him, sitting a few stools away, her hand low and scratching Cheyenne’s snout. “She just needs time to recover, Doc Mitchell already said she’s doing leagues better considering the circumstances.” 

“Not dead isn’t always better.” Trudy said, frowning a little as she polished a glass with a rag. “Don’t know what the hell that damn robot was thinking, that poor thing is probably scarred for life.” 

Sunny took a sip of her sarsaparilla, picking at the label with her nail. “Well, he did, and now we need to have the decency to help her out, get her back on her feet.” She flinched a little when Chet barked out a laugh. She grit her teeth. “I’m going to take her out tomorrow, show her the ropes, help her defend herself.” 

“Might as well teach a feral how to dance.” Chet grumbled into his drink. 

“It’s good of you to want to do that, Sunny.” Trudy said, her voice sad, telling Sunny how pointless she thought the idea was. 

Sunny turned her attention to the label of the sarsaparilla, her thumb nail gouging out long tears. She didn’t care if the others found it pointless. She knew she had to try something. The girl that had woken up in Doc Mitchell’s house had barely said a word, to anybody, and so far her first day of a second chance at life had been spent wandering around the town in an unresponsive daze. Sunny could not, in any good conscience, let a girl like that out on her own. Not with the NCR and their bored soldiers patrolling. Or those rumors of Legion in the east. Tomorrow she was going to do what she could, get the girl a gun, a knife, hell even a sharp stick would be more useful than nothing. 

The next morning, Sunny got up, grabbed her extra gear and headed up to Doc Mitchell’s house. The door swung open before she had the opportunity to knock, the old doctor looking startled. “Oh, Sunny! … Oh, Sunny…” 

Sunny blinked, frowning, hearing the disappointment in the doc’s voice. “What, what is it?”

Doc Mitchell looked at the supplies in Sunny’s arms, shook his head. “She’s not here. Don’t know when she left, I only just got up, but she’s gone along with some of my supplies. I suppose it’s good news she had enough sense to take them along, but…”

Sunny’s mouth dropped open, and she turned on her heel. She searched, checked the old crumbling homes, the school house, the graveyard, the source. Sunny checked and asked and searched. To her relief, she didn’t find any sign that the courier had been killed, at least not so close to town. She had half a mind to pack a bag and wander out after the girl. But where? Which direction? She had no idea where the girl would have gone, if the girl even knew to have a direction. The Mojave was large and deadly, and Sunny knew that more than a few hours out of town was far enough that the girl might as well have stayed buried up on the hill.


	2. Cloud Bursts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The journey to Novac.

Juniper. It was one of the only things she could remember. Her name was Juniper.

The name felt familiar, but it didn’t feel right. Juniper. That was mouthful. Who had time to say that? June, that was shorter, but it felt old, like she was a grandmother. Junie. Junie felt right. Well, as about as right could possibly feel. 

Junie kept her eyes down to her feet, watching as old and decayed tarmac flew underneath. She knew she was walking slow. The moon was bright enough to cast shadows, but the road still held too many potholes and loose stones for her to lose focus on where she stepped. Besides, focusing so intently on the ground underneath, it was easier for her to imagine she was walking incredibly far incredibly fast. 

Why did that feel good? The idea of walking far, far away?

Junie chewed her lip. Sounds of some sort of animal meeting it’s end echoed from the hills behind her. Junie pulled her head up, looking back. Goodsprings wasn’t visible, just the road she had taken, stretching and curving off into the distance. She turned back around and blinked stupidly when a large and dark form crossed her vision.

An old shack. Junie didn’t bother to read the sign. Light caught her eye, orange tickling from around the shack’s edge.

Walking around the building, Junie saw a small cliff, and just below its drop a fire, and two men both wearing the same pajamas sitting around it. She blinked down at them as they took notice and blinked up at her. Suddenly the men jumped to their feet, drawing guns and pointing them at her. 

Junie looked behind her, wondering what they saw that caused them such a start. 

“Alright girlie, what are you doing on Powder Ganger turf?” Sneered the closest one, raising his gun higher up.

Junie looked at the weapon, in the stark shadows of the fire it just seemed like a lump, a shape. Instinct told her to raise her hands, empty palms up. 

“Christ, Kenzie, it’s just a girl-“ The other man lowered his weapon. “Hey, we ain’t gonna hurt you-“ 

“Not unless you pay the toll.” The first one, Kenzie, said firmly. The other man scoffed a little, Kenzie turning on him. “Come on, Lou, you’re ruining this. We’re Powder Gangers!”

Lou scoffed again, holstering his gun. “Yes, as a fuck you to the NCR, not cause I wanted to play raider.” Lou lifted an eyebrow at Junie, who stayed perched at the top of the small cliff, staring down at the men. “You can ignore him, he got tossed into jail for tax evasion and now he thinks he’s the hardest man alive.” 

“Aw- come on Lou-“

Junie couldn’t help but giggle a little, sitting down on the edge of the drop off and sliding down, landing next to Kenzie. He shuffled, his bluff called. He stepped away from her, going back to his spot by the fire, hiding his embarrassment in the bottle of beer he had apparently set aside. 

Lou gestured to the fire, giving Junie a smile. “You can sit, don’t know what you were doing walking around at night by yourself, but you’re in no danger here.”

Junie did as she was told, putting herself next to Kenzie who bristled at her proximity. Lou nodded, sitting back down as well. Junie looked between the two of them. Lou was old, well, older. He had dark hair that shimmered with patches of grey in the firelight, and a rugged beard growing right up to crinkled eyes. Kenzie was younger, maybe in his thirties, wiry and fair. Once the guns were gone and the mood relaxed, the two outlaws barely looked like a couple of workers on break. Junie turned her attention back to the fire, staring at the logs as they burned. The coals glowed impossibly vibrant, the red and orange hues melting into her eyes. The colors began to swim. They splashed, moving like magma across her retinas. A sound suddenly ripped them out of her eyes, and Junie jumped, looking up. 

“What’s your name?” Lou had a concerned look on his face. His eyes darted to the bold spot on her head, where the good doctor had shaved her hair away to stitch the bullet hole back together. The stitches were gone, stimpacks and med-x taking care of the majority of the healing, but there was still a nasty pucker of a scar, her hair barely ghosting in regrowth. 

Junie paused- she knew this- she had just been thinking about it-

The two outlaws shared a look. Kenzie grabbed a fresh beer, popping the cap off against a sharp rock by him, passing it to Junie. Then, he raised his beer to her, “Well Girlie, cheers to you, and being to hell n’ back!” Lou raised his beer, and Junie mimicked them, holding hers aloft, taking a sip when the men tipped their heads back and chugged. 

—

The sun beat down on the Mojave, high noon seering any life that attempted to exist off the surface. Junie sat in the stark shadow of a boulder that sucked into itself with erosion. She fingered the heavy canvas of the trader’s coat the Powder Gangers had offered her. The coat was three sizes too big. At first Junie had resisted the coat when the outlaws offered it to her, the coat, and the hat, and the gun with a few magazines. 

“It might not be armor, but it’ll keep you cooler than that suit you’re wearing.” Lou had said. He had been right. Despite the thick canvas of it, the coat being so loose around her meant she got a gentle breeze just from walking. That and the wide brimmed hat pulled snug over her forehead meant that Junie was well covered to most of the world. Neither Lou nor Kenzie mentioned where the clothes came from.

She plucked at the clothes, feeling another vague sense of safety in the modesty and bulk of the outfit. Kenzie had said not everyone else in the Mojave was as nice as they were. She felt like she knew what he meant, even on another level she didn’t. All the same, she was thankful to the men, staring out at the heatwaves as the sun continued its assault on the earth. 

“Sounds like you need to get to Primm, though I’ll warn you, some guys of ours decided to break off and were giving that place some shit.” Kenzie had said, looking over the invoice she had offered him. He looked at the name at the top of the invoice, “Juniper?” He asked, looking at her. Junie shrugged, nodded. Lou had taunted him for the redness in his cheeks. 

Finally the sun began to sink lower, the shadows elongating, Junie climbing out from her hiding spot. 

She’d left the two outlaws in the morning, just before sunrise. She’d slept a little, but mostly stared up at the stars in the sky. After their parting gifts, the Powder Gangers had given her directions to Primm. It felt good to have someone else set her in a direction. It was a goal to complete, and it made trudging through the wastes a bit easier than it had been th in e previous night. Go to Primm, go to the Mojave Express, ask why she was shot in the head. 

She paused in her thoughts as she walked, the question bouncing around in her head. 

Why had she been shot?

Junie chewed her lip. 

The image of a polished gun sparkling in the moonlight, it glared in her eyes. Junie winced, the scar on her head pounding, it felt like her skull was cracking. Her ears rang, and suddenly there was not air, only dirt, filling her mouth and nose and throat-

“Hey! Are you alright?” 

Junie looked up, the pain clearing almost as fast as it had set in. She was on her knees, curled over on the ground. In front of her was a man in canvas covered uniform and a helmet with goggles. He was carrying a very large gun. Behind him loomed the skeletal structure of a roller coaster. 

“Primm is off limits.” 

Junie pushed herself up, reached into her back pocket and pulled out the delivery invoice, showing it to the uniformed man. He paused, taking the paper with a raised brow, looking it over. After a moment he offered it back,

“Look, I can’t make you do anything, if you want to go to the Express Outpost in town that’s your business, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Junie took the invoice back, tipped her hat, and carried on her way. 

—

Ruby Nash smacked her husband’s arm when the girl had disappeared back out of the Bison Steve. “What were you thinking?” She demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

Johnson Nash rubbed his arm, “I don’t know what you’re going on about, I told her what I could with her shaking that damn paper in my face.” He said, “A trade of information for service is standard procedure Rubes. And that’s without having to guess what someone is trying to ask!”

The old woman frowned, rubbing her hands together. “I’m worried she thought you were serious, that look on her face…”

“How the hell would you know what she thought, she didn’t say a damn word!”

Ruby shook her head in disbelief, patted her husband gently on the arm. “The poor dear, I hope she had enough sense to just keep moving on.”

Junie had appeared so suddenly, slamming the door behind her. Old man Nash had been startled, at first thinking those stupid gangsters were finally gonna try and take on a casino full of angry towns people. Seeing Junie pressed up against the door, panting, looking around the building like a cornered coyote, his heart would have broken if it hadn’t already been burnt hard by a long life in the Mojave.

It was easy enough to figure out she was a courier, and he told her as much as he could about the job on the invoice in her hands. But then she had kept flapping her hands and arms, making faces at him, he didn’t know what else to say but to shoo her off. 

“Maybe if you can go clear out the Bison Steve and get us some real law, then I’ll try and figure out what you want to know.”

Nash wasn’t the most straight forward man, but he felt it was obvious the request was ridiculous, asking a girl who was quite literally out of her wits to walk into a den of outlaws.

When the gunfire started, Ruby had to walk to the back of the Casino, turning the radio up and sitting by it, her face long. 

When the door banged open a few hours later, the old couple couldn’t believe it. The girl bounded back inside, Deputy Beagle looking sullen and towing behind her, and- 

“You got that old robot up and running?” Nash shook his head in disbelief, looking at the floating hunk of metal that droned about Junie’s head. She beamed up at the bot, nodded happily. The robot chirped in return.

Nash felt like he needed a stiff drink to get through processing what he just saw. Ruby rushed up to the girl, looking her over. She had a fresh cut on her cheek that the old woman worried over and put an adhesive on, but other than that she seemed unscathed. 

Junie, to no one's surprise, didn’t say what happened. Nash figured if everything the Beagle said was a downright lie, then he was beyond impressed with the girl. Once she has finished tinkering with old Primm Slim, Nash felt guilt over having shooed her away so easily. He decided to stay true to his word, even if he hadn’t meant it when he said it. He sat Junie down with a bottle of whiskey, and they spent the better part of night trying to understand exactly what she wanted to know. 

At the end of it, Nash felt like he could become an interrogator for the NCR, but he felt pride in being able to piece it all together. Ruby even took the time to write it out, nice and neat, on a piece of paper she attached to the crumple invoice so Junie could pass it out to others. 

_‘Hello, my name is Junie, I’m not much of one for speaking.  
I’m looking for a man in a checkered suit, have you seen him?’_

—

Junie spent a few days picking her way to Nipton. The first time ED-E had beeped at her, she hadn’t been sure what he was trying to tell her. When the raider jumped out at her from behind an old crumbled wall, she yelped. The gun in their hands glinted in the sunlight, the scar on her head pulsed in agony. She cowered, hands over her head, then looked up when ED-E played a sound of triumph. A pile of ash smoked in front of her.

ED-E had been indispensable inside the Bison Steve, Junie spending as much time hiding behind corners as the ever helpful Beagle. The gun that the two kind outlaws had given her felt familiar in her hand. Her muscles told her she knew how to hold it, to aim and shoot. She had even tried, leaning around the corners of the hotel halls and shooting outlaws with surprising accuracy. It was the noise it made. The noise that cracked her skull and filled her lungs with dirt. In the moments she had to cover her ears and breath hard to remind herself she could, ED-E had chirped and whirred and taken out more than his fair share of outlaws.

Once Junie realized his beeps were much like a Geiger counter, his sensitive processors detecting danger better than her eyes, she began to wind and weave across the Mojave. It added days onto her trek, every little beep sending Junie in a direction that silenced the bot. They still stumbled upon danger, things like mole rats and scorpions. Things that only wanted to defend themselves, not murder the courier in cold blood. Junie preferred that, and could even handle shooting a few feet from the critters, scaring them off before ED-E unmercifully ashed them. 

So winding away, circling around every hint of danger at a beep, Junie started watching her feet plod along in the dust. The little billows her feet kicked up as she walked the old and cracked lake bed amused her. She liked how soft they looked, and some of them sparkled in the light, vibrant orange and yellow. As Junie watched the colors began to swirl, began to spread. No matter where she looked all she saw was the hot colors of the Mojave, running like a river, swirling and swarming around her. She wanted to lie down, watch them, hoped they swallow her up-

ED-E beeping yanked her back into place, the smell of burning rubber and god knows what else assaulting her nose and banishing the swirling visions. Junie snapped her head up, seeing the shape of Nipton, black pillars of stinking smoke rising lazily above it.

The smell got stronger as they got closer, Junie felt her heart begin to race. The man wearing a familiar set of pajamas accosted her at the entrance of the town, but quickly left when she didn’t share in his revelry. Turning the corner onto the main street of the town made Junie stumble and fall.

The air was putrid, and the sight- she turned her face squarely to the ground, she couldn’t bear to look at the bodies strung up along the road. Her stomach twisted, she felt like she was going to vomit. Boots appeared in front of her, and Junie lifted her swimming head. Her eyes widened, seeing the silhouette of a monster with a human body and an animal head. Even it’s voice was monstrous, keen and dripping with malice. 

Junie could hardly pay attention to what it said, though she knew it was taking credit for the horror around her. It didn’t kill her, like she expected, instead it gave her directions and the single task of telling someone what she saw. 

Jokes on him, she thought bitterly. 

She hated ED-E in that moment- the bot didn’t register the monsters as dangerous- didn’t ash them where they stood. Junie didn’t like the smell of the ash piles, but what was another fume to add to this hellish place.

Junie stared at the ground, her vision blurring as tears stung her eyes. Her knuckles were white, gripping her knees. She didn’t know how long it was before she could bear to lift her head again, seeing that the beasts calling themselves Legion had left, leaving her alone in the town they had personally turned into hell.

Junie pushed herself up, she needed to go- needed to be as far away as possible- Her legs, jelly from having been sat on for too long, gave out from under her. Junie let out a sound of frustration. She cried to herself, hitting her legs to get the blood flowing, crawling to the first place she could get to to hide, to be away from that awful sight. 

She ducked into a doorway, slamming it shut behind her. The air was blessedly clear of the smell from outside, though not as deserted as she thought. Junie screamed when Boxcars opened his mouth, the surprise enough to send her into a full case of sobs. 

The outlaw sat awkwardly, unable to interrupt the girl that had just tumbled into the old trading post. At first he thought she was Legion, deciding to finish him off after all. Then he hoped it was more of his gang, coming to rescue him. The shaking girl crumpled against the door let him know he needed to just stop hoping. 

Eventually she calmed herself down, getting up to stare at him. Boxcars frowned, staring back. This small contest went on until the girl gestured to his legs. 

“Yeah, I see you’ve got fucking eyes. Either give me something to help me out or fuck off.” 

The girl actually started to fumble around her pockets. Boxcars used to mock bleeding hearts but in this moment he was more glad than he was willing to admit to having someone’s charity. The girl produced some med-x, two doses, and offered them out. Boxcars took them gruffly, not bothering to say thanks. He shot one into his hip, emptying the full syringe- probably too much, considering his blood loss- but the relief he felt made him sit back and sigh.

He cracked open an eye, seeing the girl was still standing there, staring at him. “What the fuck do you want? Quit staring at me and let me sit in fucking peace.”

She glanced back at the door, paling a little. 

“Don’t wanna go back out there? Yeah, don’t blame you on that. Maybe try being there when it fucking happened, that’ll really get you.” Boxcars said, scowling. The girl sent him a look of pain that made him wince and look away. “Listen girlie, I don’t really want your sympathy, just all the med-x you have and some fucking privacy. If you want to throw your bleeding heart at someone aim it at the guys those Legion assholes enslaved.”

Bizarrely, the girl nodded, turning to the door. When she opened it there was a beeping, some bot that was left outside floating around her head. The girl patted it, then looked back at Boxcars. 

“I said fuck off.”

She looked sad, and let the door close behind her. 

“Dumb bitch…” Boxcars popped the cap off the second med-x, injecting it with a sigh.

—

Junie cowered behind a boulder, hearing ED-E zap at the last of the raiders. A little victory chime sounded as the the bot floated around the rock back into view. Junie couldn’t be bothered to get back up. She was tired and aching and couldn’t possibly take another step. 

For almost a week she and ED-E had wound their ways across hills and valleys, trying to avoid danger. But this part of the desert seemed to be crawling with the sorts of people who wanted nothing more than an opportunity to hurt her. 

She had used the few stimpacks she had after setting off a mine. She cursed her mistake, the mine had been hidden under a traffic cone, she had barely noticed it. Now she could barely use her leg and her right arm was wrapped and pulled inside her large coat, strapped to her chest to keep it from being further injured. Junie couldn’t remember details, who she had been, where she was from, but practical knowledge seemed to have stayed steadfast despite the bullet to her brain. She was thankful she knew how to mend her leg and arm, though she would need real medical attention. Limping her way through the wastes just seemed like an invite for more danger.

ED-E beeped at her. Junie looked up, realizing her eyes were wet again. She felt like she hadn’t stopped crying since Nipton. She looked up at the bot, who kept beeping. She nodded, agreeing with the robot. She pushed herself up, wincing when she put too much weight on her leg. According to the map on her arm, it would only be a little farther until she reached Novac. With any luck, which she felt she had sorely run out of, she’d get there before nightfall.

—

Boone peered through his scope, seeing the floating object first. He considered sniping it, when he noticed the shuffling figure next to it. It was hard to tell in the night, the moon was a small sliver in the sky. Whoever the person was, they didn’t seem like a threat, no matter how weird the floating bot following them was. It stirred memories in Boone’s mind, from history lessons and previous wars fought. He watched through his scope, then turned his attention back to the east. No point in wasting ammo.


	3. Thunder in the Ear

Junie collapsed on the bed of the motel room. 

It had been pulling teeth getting the old woman up front to rent her the room. She had talked up a storm about how ill mannered the man in the checkered suit had been, then refused to accept Junie wasn’t going to be talking. She had hounded the girl with questions in belligerent concern. As soon as the woman mentioned renting a room Junie had slammed her caps on the counter, just to get her to stop. 

She was sure the woman had conned her, 100 caps for just a room? The room was nice, and she didn’t mention a check out time, but still… Junie only had a handful left. Her arm and leg still throbbed with pain, but she decided that a long sleep would be just as good as a doctor's visit, for now. It was late anyways.

ED-E droned around the room as Junie slept. She slept through the night and most of the next day, only waking up long enough to drag herself to the bathroom to drink water from the faucet. The water tastes like rust and dirt and she didn’t care, gulping it down and then collapsing back in the bed. 

When she did finally wake up, the sun was low in the sky. A few hours out from nightfall. Junie pushed herself out of the bed, pulled her coat on, and shuffled out of the room and taking the stairs one at a time. The doctor of the town heckled her for the amount of caps she had, but eventually took pity and helped her with her arm and leg.

“Nothing serious, just some deep bruising. Those bandages and stimpacks you applied really did the most of it. Rest a few days and you’ll be as right as rain.” 

It was a relief to hear that nothing had been seriously damaged, and the medicine the doctor gave Junie helped with the pain. She still limped, but it would have to do. The day was almost over and she had one more thing to do.

Jeannie May in her long winded complaining, had said that the day timer sniper, Manny, had spoken to the man in the checkered suit. It felt surreal. She knew she was close to two weeks behind on their trail, and she had no idea why it was a trail she was evening following. But the purpose of finding the man who shot her, asking him why… it was better than wandering off into the desert to die from exposure. Now, knowing someone else might actually have something more useful than “they went that way” to say… 

Junie hiked up the steps to the gift shop, the setting sun painting the sky red and magenta. She was winded by the time she got inside. The man at the counter smiled happily at her, offering her a dinosaur for the small price of a single cap. Junie blinked at him, beyond exhausted with the ridiculousness of the town. She shook her head at him then walked to the stairs, whimpering a little when she saw the climb. She was about to turn back when the door up top opened and a man made his way down the stairs, with a very large gun on his back. 

Junie looked up at him, and the man looked down at her as he made his way down the steps. 

“You need something?” Manny asked, looking over the girl standing at the bottom of the steps, a little amused. She looked like an overstuffed pillow, the coat she was wearing was so big on her, and her hat was pulled all the way down, so all Manny could see was a pair of large dark eyes peeking at him.

The girl nodded hard, pulling out papers and pushing them into his hands. Manny paused, looked at Cliff at the counter. Cliff shrugged, shaking his head. Manny sighed and looked at the papers as the girl in front of him stared intently. 

His shoulders stiffened as he read the contents, glancing up at the girl. She didn’t say anything. He looked at Cliff, then nodded to the exit. “Come on, we can talk outside.” He said gruffly, keeping the papers in his hand and leading Junie outside. 

Junie swallowed hard. He definitely seemed to act like he knew something. Part of her didn’t want to follow him, he could have been in on the whole thing, Jeannie May did say he was friends with the men who shot her. He could be leading her off to tie up a loose end. This didn’t keep her from following him.

Manny lead her out to the old gas station across from the motel. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, offered Junie one. She shook her head, staring at him. Manny sighed.

“So what is the story here? You trying to avenge the poor sap that Benny did in?”

Benny? That must be the name of the man who shot her. It… it did sound right. Did she hear it? Had someone said it in passing?

Junie shook her head, paused, then shrugged. She reached up and pulled her hat off, revealing the scar on her forehead and the shorn away hair. A few weeks meant the area that had been shaved clean now had soft dark fuzz. No hair grew over the scar, and it seemed committed to staying dark and purple. Manny didn’t seem to be expecting that, his eyes widening. He took a long drag from his cigarette. 

“Well shit.” He said, then went quiet.

Around them the desert grew dark. Sun had finally disappeared on the horizon, twilight settling in. 

Manny stared down at the note. 

_‘Hello, my name is Junie, I’m not much of one for speaking.  
I’m looking for a man in a checkered suit, have you seen him?’_

He made a sound of frustration, suddenly holding the papers back out to Junie, who snatched them back and folded them into one of her many pockets. She pulled her hat back on and snuggly down, staring at him hard.

“So what, you want to kill Benny now?” He asked, folding his arms. “Don’t get me wrong, the guy is a dink and deserves it but…” he gestured to Junie.

Junie flushed, shrugged, moved her hands and arms around. Manny frowned, the way she moved her hands was too precise to be a nervous tick, but he also had no idea what it was. It made him think of some of the signs he had been taught, while with the NCR, shorthand for situations when they couldn’t talk. It made sense, but he didn’t understand it. 

“I don’t know what you’re saying. But if you don’t want to kill him, then I’m not sure what you’re doing following him.”

Junie was relieved that Manny even recognized she was speaking with her hands, and she nodded solemnly at his comment. She didn’t want revenge. She… didn’t think she wanted revenge. She just wanted to know why. Or at least tell him to be a better shot next time. 

“I know where he and his buddies went, but it’ll cost you.” 

Junie frowned, looking Manny over. She took a haphazard step back, shrinking a little. Manny looked surprised, then offended. 

“Hey, man, I didn’t mean like that! I’m not that kind of scum! No- no, look, Novac is home to me now, and I need help with a problem…”

Junie gave another frustrated sigh when she stalked back up to her motel room. Why did everyone need her to go shoot something before they would tell her what she needed to know? Well, Manny had said he didn’t want her to kill all of those ghouls, just needed them gone.

Junie flopped onto the bed, groaning. Maybe she should just wait until her arm and leg were fully healed and head out anyways. The theme was that they were headed to New Vegas, she should just cut out the middleman and head straight there. 

Get to New Vegas as quick as possible.

The idea made her skin itch, and she had to ignore it completely. Guess she’d heal up, do the favor for Manny, then head to whatever place he pointed to next. Even then, she wasn’t sure what she was expecting to find there. He had already given her more information than she had expected.

His name was Benny, and apparently he was a dink. 

It didn’t give her a why, but it was more than she had before. 

Her eyes felt heavy, and Junie fell asleep before she had time to even kick off her shoes. When she woke up, it was late into the night, the small hours of morning, and she felt totally refreshed. 

With a sigh she got out of bed, and headed back outside. If she was going to be awake in the middle of the night she might as well look around. She shut ED-E inside the room, smiling at him. 

Her leg slowed her down as she climbed back down the stairs. It seemed the more rest she got the sorer it felt, but then, that was sometimes just how healing went. She shuffled around the courtyard of the motel, then out along the few streets of town. 

Novac was surprisingly busy at night for a town smaller than Goodsprings and no bar. A few people milled about, and there was even an old man raving about a chupacabra over by one of the homesteads. She wondered, listened, wondered a little more. 

No-Bark, as it turned out, understood her signing, which washed her with enough relief that she didn’t care that everything he said had been tilted 50 degrees sideways. Some of the locals did chuckle, looking at the girl waving her arms at the local crazy man, but it didn’t upset her as much as she expected it to. 

No-Bark himself seemed pretty willing to talk to her, and it had been so long since she had an honest conversation she just started asking him things to hear his interpretation of the event. He even told her that he heard on the radio that the courier had been shot in the head but was actually fine. 

“Feh, like anyone survives that. You wanna know what old No-Bark thinks? Thinks they cloned them! Made out of spiros and gears, soon they’ll be replacing everybody!!”

Junie couldn’t help but grin. She wished she was made of spiros and gears, maybe then getting fixed up would be as easy as she fixed up ED-E. 

When she felt finished with her first real conversation since waking up in Doc Mitchell’s bed, Junie felt revitalized as a person. She hummed to herself as she walked the street in front of the motel. She had barely paid attention to it when she first arrived, too exhausted and in pain to think twice about the giant dinosaur. But now she wanted to get a better look. 

She shuffled out in front of the hulking thing, staring up at it. It was truly a sight. Suddenly she felt the urge to go use one of her final caps to buy one of the toy dinosaurs in the gift shop. She had to, even if she wasn’t sure what she would do with it. Maybe she’d tie it to ED-E, make him look like he had a rider. She giggled to herself. 

Junie turned back and headed for the courtyard of the motel, walking around the tail of the dino to get to the steps. She’d just leave the cap on the counter, she thought, reaching her hand out to open the door. The door flung open before she could touch the handle.

Junie flinched and the man in the other side gave a sharp inhale of shock. 

“Shit- don’t sneak up on me like that- what do you want?”

Boone glared at the girl in front of him through his glasses. It was the one that came shuffling in the previous night. His hand dropped from where it had reflexively gone to his combat knife. 

Junie blinked at him. He had the same hat as Manny. He also looked very pissed. Without thinking she pulled out her papers and passed them to him, he didn’t seem the type to keep waiting. 

Boone looked down at the papers, frowning, taking them and looking them over. “... is this about those Great Khans that came through a few weeks back?” He asked, frowning. “Sorry, but I didn’t get the chance to talk to them. Better talking to Manny about it.” He looked at the words on the note as he passed the papers back. 

“You don’t talk?” 

Junie frowned, flushed. She didn’t have time for this, she’d get the Dino in the morning. She turned away from the sniper with a roll of her eyes, hoping he caught the sass as she gingergly stepped back down the steps. 

“No wait, don’t go just yet.” Boone was able to take the steps much faster and got beside the girl. “You’re new around here, just passing through? Maybe you can do me a favor.”

Junie huffed a sound of annoyance. What was with people meeting total strangers and offering them a to-do list? She was about to wave him off, then she saw the look on his face. He looked haunted, and determined, his jaw set. She stared for a second, then nodded gently. 

When Boone explained the situation, her annoyance left her. Images from Nipton floated through her head, the fear and nausea returning. The idea that anyone could work with those demons, could willingly submit someone else to their whims. She was nodding yes before he had even fleshed out the entire plan. Junie had felt so small and useless in Nipton, if there was anything she could do, she wanted in.

It was a surprisingly easy mystery to solve- granted she had to go off the word of No-Bark, but she heard the kernels of truth in his words. Breaking into the safe had been even easier, and getting Jeannie May to follow her out to the front of the dinosaur had even been simple. She liked this, having things go smoothly for once.

Jeannie May sounded irritated at having been woken up so late, and she was muttering a storm about being too kind to all the crazy folk walking in from the wastes. Once in place, Junie placed the red Beret on top of her head, feeling very proud of herself.

The shot rang out, and Jeannie May’s head disappeared.

Junie stared at the body as it crumpled to the ground. She turned away, blinking. The sound of it- it sounded like- it was the same sound when-  
Her forehead pounded so hard it knocked the wind out of her. The world tipped, and Junie found herself onthe ground.

Boone swore when the girl collapsed. He knew he didn’t hit her, but seeming her crumple only seconds after taking his shot made him panic more than he had expected. He looked through his scope, the only blood on the girl was spatter from Jeannie May. Maybe it was the sight- he had to admit it was a much more gruesome death than he had expected. The girl stirred, pushed herself up, and Boone let out a low exhale. 

It took the girl maybe thirty minutes to get up to the Dino’s mouth. When the door pushed open, Boone recognized the look on the girls face. It was one he had felt many times before. Grim acceptance to your part in a fucked up situation. He wished shooting a woman who desperately deserved it still constituted as fucked up to him.

“What was that?” He asked, and the look in Junie’s eye said she could say even if she did talk. He sighed, “Alright then, how did you know?”

Junie reached into a pocket and offered him a piece of paper, a bill of sale. Boone felt his jaw tightened, and he had to rip his eyes off of the page when he saw the number of people sold. He crumpled the bill in his hand, shoved it into his pocket. “It would be just like them to keep fucking paperwork.” 

The girl stared at him, frowning. She did something with her hands, he recognized it was a form of speaking, even if he didn’t know what she was saying. “Sorry, I don’t know what that is.” 

She huffed, pulled out her own papers again, pointed at them. He looked at them blankly, then back up to her. She tapped her foot. 

“What, is this a trade now?” 

The girl nodded. Boone couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Sorry, but that’s not going to work out.” 

The girl gestured about her, looking fed up, looking concerned. Oddly enough, Boone could tell what she was emoting. 

“I’m not going to stay here, if that’s what you’re asking. I’ll probably head east, start hunting Legion.”

Junie scowled, looked down at her feet. This perfect opportunity, having a bodyguard as she went and dealt with the ghouls to get her next needed bit of information from Manny, felt like it was slipping through her fingers. 

She looked at the papers in her hand, crumpled in her fist. Junie couldn’t head straight to New Vegas, that was- that was too much, but she didn’t know where else to go. She turned, leaving a stunned Boone behind as she limped down the stairs and back to her room. 

Boone frowned at the door, rolled his shoulders, and turned back to watching the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what I’ve got written up to now! Updates will be sporadic, let me know how y’all like it, if anyone is reading NV fanfic in the year 2021.


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